Tagarchief: Copenhagen

Danish architectsBIG have completed their 8 House residential project with a figure-of-eight plan in Copenhagen.

The building features a continuous cycle path and pedestrian walkway, winding up to the tenth floor and back down to ground level, and providing access to all residences. The structure wraps around two courtyards connected by a tunnel through the central cross, which houses communal facilities. Its height is lower on the south-west corner and higher at the north-east side to make best use of daylight.

“We have now completed three remarkable buildings in Orestad, the VM Houses, The Mountain and finally the 8 House – which is the sole result of a good and constructive collaboration with talented young architects who had a good understanding for the economical aspects,” Per Hopfner, Hopfner Partners

The 8 House creates two intimate interior courtyards, separated by the centre of the cross which houses 500 m2 of communal facilities available for all residents.

NORM Architects have recently completed the great interior for a House near Copenhagen, Denmark.

On a sloping property north of Copenhagen, the Fredensborg House is built on five small plateaus connected by steps, reflecting the shape of its surrounding terrain. The house aesthetic is derived from inspirations brought about by the labyrinthine mountain village architecture, those that you may find familiar in Southern Europe, the architecture of Chinese temples, and in the works of modernist Danish architecture Jorn Utzon.

Louisiana Pavilion wins International Innovation Award (earlier story on ArchiDE)

The green Pavilion in the Sculpture Park of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art has been a catalyst for play and energy during the past few months. The pavilion has now been honoured with the JEC Innovation Award 2010 for its design combining sustainability and intelligent materials

The JEC Innovation Award is the largest international award for the composite design field that encompasses innovative companies in the car and air transport industries. The award places the green pavilion alongside research and development projects from visionary industry giants such as Airbus, Boeing, Daimler Chrysler and Rolls-Royce.

– It is amazing that we, as a small Danish studio can play in the same league. The project started as an experiment to test the limits of what was possible to construct out of biological materials. It is because we believe that the future is about new materials that require less energy to develop than aluminum or concrete. Now we hope that this knowledge generated through the project can be used in other applications – and perhaps also other industries, explains Kim Nielsen, Principal of 3XN, whose R&D department GXN has developed the project.

The Pavilion is constructed from biodegradable biological materials such as cork, flax fibres, corn and soy beans. Together they form a bio-composite developed especially for the project. The entire process has been a remarkable learning experience in replacing traditional materials with the biological.

– At StageOne we are highly experienced at working with complex shapes and unusual materials. In this instance we worked with biologically derived materials in a structural application, which was new for us. The project was made even more challenging by a demanding deadline and a tight budget, explains Edwin Stokes, FRP Development Director at StageOne Freeform Composites, who produced the Pavilion.

A number of high technology elements are integrated into the Pavilion, which results in the sculpture having an interaction with its environment. Phase changing materials regulate the temperature, so the pavilion is warm to sit on when it is cold and feels cool on a warm summer day. The exterior skin is self-cleaning and also has a photocatalytic effect of cleaning the surrounding air. The most important interaction is the immediate one with users, as the pavilion can be touched and walked on unlike most of the other sculptures in the garden at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

– It’s fascinating to think that people’s activity can generate energy simply by integrating specific materials, just as we can see here where ‘children at play’ create the energy required to run the integrated LED lights, explains Development Director Bente Andersen from COWI. She further says, the Pavilion has given us the opportunity to demonstrate, how sustainable and intelligent materials can be used in buildings.

The Pavilion was created for the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art’s primary exhibition leading up to the UN Climate Conference in December, ’Green Architecture for the Future’. In just four months, the idea, design and materials came together. This intense process required an integrated co-operation between the projects three main partners – 3XN, COWI and StageOne along with more than 20 other innovative companies.

MIND YOUR BEHAVIOUR

HOW CAN ARCHITECTURAL SURROUNDINGS AFFECT YOUR BEHAVIOUR?Architecture can get people talking together. Architecture can calm children in the classroom. Architecture can make passive people more active. Architecture can shape corporate culture. Architecture can encourage people to find new paths, discover new aspects of their city – and of themselves.On 12 february (tomorrow) there is a grand opening of a solo exhibition of 3XN at the Danish Architecture Centre in Copenhagen. MIND YOUR BEHAVIOUR invites you into 3XNs universe and gives a glimpse into the thoughts, visions and processes forming the basis of 3XNs architecture focusing on behaviour. The exhibit challenges the concept of behaviour by providing a direct and physical meeting with 4 meter high abstract building sections as well as inviting the viewer to reflect on how architecture shapes our behaviour. The exhibit displays 28 projects from the last five years of 3XNs work.

3XNs Principal Kim Herforth Nielsen explains: ”Our objective is to give the audience a direct, sensual experience of how architecture affects the way we experience things and interact with each other. At the same time, MIND YOUR BEHAVIOUR initiates the public into the thoughts and processes that lie behind 3XNs architecture.”

MIND YOUR BEHAVIOUR will be on display at the Danish Architecture Centre until May 13. Afterward it will be on tour. The exhibit is followed by a book, which will be published March 4 in connection with an international summit on ‘Behaviour and the Built Environment’. For further information regarding the event please visitwww.dac.dkSpecial thanks to Lisa Roland for sharing. Photographs are made by Adam Mørk

Copenhagen- and Rotterdam based architects Powerhouse Company have completed a spiral-shaped extension to a house in Burgundy, France. Called Spiral House, the extension is arranged around a central patio, where the visitors can enter the structure.

“We want a house with a twist, a house that has something something to say.”

The Spiral house is an extension of an existing house. Set amongst a generous property covering 13.000m2, crossed by a small river and planted with a wide variety of old ornamental trees, the Spiral House rests within the pastoral charm of the Burgundy landscape.

Despite its traditional architecture the existing house struggled to inhabit and occupy the expansive garden. In contrast the Spiral House expands freely into the garden, seeking to create as many experiences of the garden as possible.

In a gentle lift from the ground floor to the roof level it creates a surprising variety of spaces that blur the boundaries between the house and the garden where the architecture and the landscape merge together.

In wrapping the house around a planted patio the Spiral House is reminiscent of a french ‘Clos’: an enclosed vineyard common to the famous landscape of the region. In the Spiral House the ‘Clos’ is transformed into an inviting gesture, the peripheral wall is lifted and twisted to create a spiral. In turn it creates a continuous invitation from outside to inside and a continuous movement from the entrance to the more intimate rooms of the house.

The patio, the covered terrace and the panoramic views serve to connect the house with the garden, inviting the guests to unwind and enjoy the garden’s tranquillity. Its geometry grew out of the internal organization of the house mixed with the particular requests of the client. Large and open rooms with high ceilings are used on the ground floor for the living room and library, while smaller, more intimate spaces are used for two guest suites. It also includes a multipurpose dorm/playroom for the kids and their friends.

3XN Architects send me these pictures and info from their recent project, the Saxo Bank headquarters.

Visible from the lively cafes across the water, the new corporate headquarters for a Danish Investment Bank, Saxo Bank has been turning heads since its opening earlier this year. This striking building, with its playful patterns of white and glass facades, reflects the colors of the surrounding sky and water.

Inside, the open atrium-lit trading floors are buzzing with activity. A central spiral staircase creates an open environment with vertical and horizontal sightlines over the young dynamic banking team.

3XN designed Saxo Bank’s new headquarter to match the young, dynamic internet bank’s cutting edge profile. The expressive structures balance iconographic qualities with trustworthy solidity, while the inside organization encourages interaction and knowledge sharing, making the building an effective and inspiring frame for modern corporate work life.

Mountain Dwellings, is a project consisting of apartments above a multi-storey car park designed by the Danish architects Bjarke Ingels Group or BIG. The building is located in Copenhagen, next to VM Houses, completed by BIG and Julien de Smedt Architects in 2006.

The 80 apartments are arranged on a sloping “hillside” above the car park that has space for 480 cars.

Text from the architects:

How do you combine the splendours of the suburban backyard with the social intensity of urban density? The Mountain Dwellings are the 2nd generation of the VM Houses – same client, same size and same street. The program, however, is 2/3 parking and 1/3 living.

What if the parking area became the base upon which to place terraced housing – like a concrete hillside covered by a thin layer of housing, cascading from the 11th floor to the street edge? Rather than doing two separate buildings next to each other – a parking and a housing block – we decided to merge the two functions into a symbiotic relationship.

The parking area needs to be connected to the street, and the homes require sunlight, fresh air and views, thus all apartments have roof gardens facing the sun, amazing views and parking on the 10th floor. The Mountain Dwellings appear as a suburban neighbourhood of garden homes flowing over a 10-storey building – suburban living with urban density.

The roof gardens consist of a terrace and a garden with plants changing character according to the changing seasons. The building has a huge watering system which maintains the roof gardens. The only thing that separates the apartment and the garden is a glass façade with sliding doors to provide light and fresh air.